Tina Peters, a former Mesa County Clerk, reignited her election-rigging narrative just hours after being released from prison in Colorado, where she was serving a nine-year sentence for election interference in 2020.
Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO) commuted Peters’s sentence at La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo last month following public pressure from President Donald Trump. Peters was released Monday afternoon after serving 19 months.
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Peters appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast shortly after her release and, without proof, claimed that Democrats are “going to cheat” in the 2026 midterm elections.
“I know that the Democrats are going to cheat, and no one’s really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for, and that was exposing the election machines that allow the votes to be flipped,” Peters said.
Peters said she still “has a fight to go” and said she will “bring out the truth of why they came after me the way they did” to clear her name. She previously wrote a letter to Trump requesting a presidential pardon, but Peters could not be granted a presidential pardon because she was convicted on state charges.
Peters, 70, said she plans to spend the next few weeks “regaining” her health. While in prison, Peters’s attorney had requested she be transferred to “a safe unit” after she had been threatened on multiple occasions. During her interview on Monday, she referred to spending time in solitary confinement.
Peters was serving time after being convicted on multiple felony accounts for helping an unauthorized person access county election equipment and allowing sensitive voting system data to be copied and distributed in an effort to get the results of the 2020 election overturned.
Polis’s decision to grant Peters clemency faced significant backlash, with his state colleagues censuring him for what they called harming the Colorado Democratic Party’s “institutional credibility” and yielding to Trump.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), who is running to replace term-limited Polis, shared the video of Peters’s interview on Monday and raised concerns about her possibly cashing in on Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund, which seeks to compensate people who claim they were wrongly targeted by the Justice Department.
“If anyone had doubts about whether Tina Peters learned anything from her imprisonment, she answered that question within hours of her release,” Bennet said. “She cannot get a cent from Trump’s slush fund.”
Bennet added that he would “tax any payouts 100%” if he is elected in November.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold was also frustrated after Peters’s release, calling Polis’s grant of clemency “an affront to our democracy.”
“It sends a dangerous message about accountability for those who would attack elections,” Griswold said. “Peters’ release also will embolden the election denial movement; since the grant of clemency, she has continued to spread election falsehoods and conspiracies.”
TINA PETERS RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER JARED POLIS COMMUTED HER SENTENCE
Polis has defended his decision to free Peters, emphasizing that he does not believe she is innocent or agree with her claims about elections. He said his decision was because “the sentence itself had become disconnected from the crime.”
“Tina Peters should be punished for what she did,” he said in a Substack post. “She should not receive additional punishment for what she believed or said.”
